When I was younger, sure, I watched Pokémon. Nowadays, I hate the show for reasons other people stated above, but the main problem, for some reason, I think is that the show has way too many characters with a mascot-status.
Think about it: there's Pikachu of course. Apart from him, you could argue that Brocks meme-like hitting on women and some other character dragging him away is really something for a mascot. Then there's Team Rocket, who, in the beginning I quess were supposed to be the villains(they're way darker in the first few episodes than later on. Come on, in the third or so episode Ekans and Koffing were ordered to attack a fucking HOSPITAL), but now, with all the stupid shit they do in like EVERY EPISODE, they're closer to being mascots than villains. Scratch that, they already are mascots. Then there's that little thing that Team Rocket happens to have THEIR OWN MASCOT as well, namely Meowth. Meowth is still pretty good, luckily, but it's a bit stupid to have a show with mascots having mascots of their own.
It's like having Bleach with every character acting like Kon all the time. It's like Bleach's Karakurizer-filler, but not as funny.
Anyway, there's another show with lots of monsters that's about a million times better than Pokémon. Digimon! In the beginning, when the show aired alongside with Pokémon, Pokémon still was kind of good, but Digimon still blew it out of the water. Every of Digimon has its own charm(and luckily they don't reuse their characters all the time like Pokémon. New pack of kids every season with the exception of the first series which has a sequel).
Digimon is nothing like Pokémon except for having tons of little creatures. It's actually pretty deep for a kids' anime. Digimon's main power lies in the way the children in each series start out with their(not too big, but still significant) problems and limitations, and better themselves during the story. Also, Digimon has the nice treat that battles in the first couple of episodes tend to resemble Pokémon's, but near the end, it's more like mecha and can get really awesome.
The best Digimon series is Digimon Tamers, actually has Chiaki J. Konaka as its head writer, and he is known for animes like Serial Experiments Lain. Obviously, Digimon Tamers shares many things with that anime, and also with other big ''serious'' animes like Neon Genesis Evangelion.
This results in a darker, deeper Digimon, and, in my opinion, the best kids' show ever. I'd even go as far as recommending it to anyone who is interested in anime. Too bad it's only available dubbed, as there's only like 6 episodes subbed to in English. The down side is that with Tamers Digimon's ratings started to dive, and it disappeared after one other series, and a ressurection attempt in 2006. Digimon Tamers is quite literally the peak of Digimon.
I went off topic there, but Digimon is just so damn awesome(especially Tamers).
